EFFORT

My friend Karol picks a word every year to guide her and I loved the idea and without realizing it did the same thing last year.

Last year it was HEALTHY.  Healthy choices, healthy changes, healthy mindset.  It served me well because it drove me in a sense the direction that I wanted to go.  I started exercising again regularly and began to feel stronger.  I started eating better and felt better physically.  I started making decisions that were healthier for me mentally.  All in all, a pretty good year.

This year it's EFFORT.  The effort that you put into things both emotionally and physically.  The effort that makes a positive difference in my life.  I spoke up at work finally after years of just going through the motions and told them that I wasn't happy with my position but I continued to put effort in, I put effort into things there that were important to me and it resulted in a new position that I am loving.

I have made a sincere effort to enjoy the little things in life and truly appreciate the relationships that I sometimes take for granted and have had a lot of laughs and smiles added to my year so far.

It's difficult being a single parent.  My co-parent attends events and supports me and the kids and is there when I ask for help but 99% of the time it's just me.  I go to work full-time, make them dinner, make sure homework is done, do the disciplining, clean the house, drive them to their multiple practices and events, and volunteer  but every night I climb into bed alone.  I never in a million years thought that this would be my life.  I grew up with parents who were completely in love and supported each other every single day.  I had no reason to believe that I would not follow in their foot steps.  But when I'm having a bad day, I realized that I don't think about "if only I had put more effort in to keep my marriage" because I know that I did, it just wasn't meant to be.  We are better people, better parents not living together.  I tell you this because effort has always been part of who I am, I just didn't focus on the many different areas that the word applies and that's why this year I am doing just that.